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By Rachel Glogowski in HARTFORD, Connecticut, U.S.A. –The theater adaptation of Harper
Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, breathed new life into a classic
traditionally read by students in the United States and around the
world.

Now playing at Hartford
Stage, the show dutifully told the story of Scout and Jem Finch, two young
children of a lawyer named Atticus from a small Southern town in the 1930s.
The three main child actors who played Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend
Dill, superbly represented the characters described by Lee in the book. Read more

When Hurricane Katrina smashed ashore in
2005, Louisiana teen Samantha Perez started writing about the
storm that washed away much of her old life. Her journal,
chronicled in the pages of The Tattoo, is all online at

Hurricane Journal.
Read it for an eye-opening and intensely personal look into the
eye of the worst storm in recent history.

By Youth Journalism International
staff in HARTFORD,
Connecticut, U.S.A.

--
Playing some of the most famous kids
in American literature, three young actors at Hartford Stage are
having a great time with their roles while tackling the tough
issues in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The play, which is nearing the end
of a wildly popular run, is based on the Harper Lee novel of the
same name.

It features 12-year-old Olivia Scott as Scout Finch,
a girl growing up in tiny Maycomb, Alabama; 15-year-old Henry
Hodges as her brother Jem, and 11-year-old Andrew Shipman, who
plays their friend, Dill Harris.

The three actors said they’re having
fun with their characters, but also said the play delivers an
important message.

Set in the early 1930s durg a
time of intense racial prejudice, the three children are in the
middle of a controversial court case that has the entire town
watching. Scout and Jem’s father, attorney Atticus Finch, is
assigned to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely
accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell.

Hodges said the play is still relevant to
today’s society.

“You can still totally be judged because of
your race. We’re not done with it, we’ve still got a long way to
go,” Hodges said.

Scott said the show “also kind of points a
finger at the audience. Your ancestors did this and it’s your
job to change it now.”

Shipman said the story tells “how far we’ve
come, but what we need to work on.”

By Eugenia Durante in GENOA, Italy
– Humankind is filled with fear.
We fear the ones who are different from us, fear being judged for our mistakes,
fear things which we call “unusual” just because they are not exactly like us,
the “normal” ones.
At the root of this fear is just one thing I can easily describe with only one
word: ignorance.These were the
first things I thought after I read Harper Lee’s book,To
kill a Mockingbird. Evidence doesn’t matter if the accused is a black man, Tom Robinson. Even if
he clearly and unquestionably has not raped Miss Mayella Ewell, he IS guilty, he
must be guilty because of the color of his skin.
And again, in the little Maycomb it is forbidden to talk about the mad Boo
Radley, and consequently all the children want to spy on him and know his
secrets. To them, he is a strange and fascinating beast.
But maybe it is not only the children who really don’t understand all this
reluctance and prejudice. Read whole story